Tag patch supply



Dem 1957 c: SJHELPARD ,81

TAG PATCH SUPPLY Filed June 9. 1954 United States Patent TAG PATCH SUPPLY Curtis S. Helpard, Reading, Mass., assignor to Makatag Machine Corporation, Reading, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application June 9, 1954, Serial No. 435,459

2 Claims. (Cl. 206-56) This invention applies to a supply of tag patches adapted to be fed into a machine for applying such patches to tag bodies, and to a method of making such a supply. Tag bodies are customarily reinforced near one end by tough patches to prevent the string used to attach the tag to an object from tearing out of the hole through which it passes. It is an object of the invention to provide a supply of disks for patches which can be fed to a patch-applying machine for application to tags Without the necessity of any further cutting to sever the patches from the parent strip. For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description thereof, and to the drawing of which--- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a roll of patch stock in strip form;

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of a punching mechanism about to operate on a strip of patch stock;

Figures 3 and 4 are similar to Figure 2 but show subsequent steps in the operation of the punch;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary sectional view of a strip embodying the invention; and

'Figure 6 is a perspective view of a length of strip embodying the invention.

Strips 10 of patch stock are customarily supplied in rolls 12 with or without one gummed face. If supplied with a gummed face 14 the roll is preferably made up so that the gummed face is outermost, that is, on the convex side. By way of illustration and not limitation, the strip in the roll 12 may be of red rope patch stock, '%3" in width and .009" in thickness with a layer of gum about .0015 thick on the convex face.

According to the invention the strip is fed through a punching machine with its gummed face down. The machine includes a cylindrical punch 16 reciprocable in a casing 18 under which the strip 10 is fed, step by step. Directly below the punch 16 is a yielding plunger 20 vertically reciprocable in a casing 22 below the Ice Patented Dec. 3, 1957 2 casing 18. The plunger 20 is spring-pressed upward .to a limiting position shown in Figure 2 in which its upper face 24 is slightly (about .001") lower than the level of the surrounding face 26 of the casing 22.

The strip 10 passes between the punch 16 and plunger 20 and is advanced a definite amount (e. g. /1") after each punching operation. When the strip is ready for an operation, the casing 18 descends .to clamp the strip 10 between it and the casing 22. At the same time the punch 16 descends and punches out a disk 30, completely severing it from the strip and pressing it and the plunger down below the level of the adjacent portion of the strip, as in Figure 3. The punch 16 is then elevated to the position shown in Figure 4, the disk 30 and plunger 20 following it upward. This nearly restores the disk 30 to its original position in the hole left by it in the strip, but not quite. The faces of the disk are left ofiset about .001 from the adjacent faces of the strip. The offset is downward or in the direction of the gummed convex face 14, as indicated in Figure 5. The cut ends of the fibers at the edges of each disk and of the hole from which it is punched engage one another to maintain the disks in the holes for ordinary handling of the strip. The disks are easily separable from the strip, however, in the direction of the gummed face so that in an applying machine they leave the strip clearly and do not stick or jam therein.

When the disks 30 are being punched out as described, feed holes 32 are also punched in the margins of the strip at regular intervals to cooperate with the teeth of a feed wheel in the patch applying machine so that the disks' 30 will be accurately located when about to be pushed from the strip and pressed against a tag.

1 claim:

1. A tape of fiber patch stock with a gum coating on one face thereof, said tape having a series of patches completely severed therefrom but frictionally held in place by engagement of their circumferential edges with internal edges of the tape, said patches being slightly oifset from the plane of the tape in the direction of the coated face.

2. A tape as in claim 1, said tape being coiled with the gum coating on the convex side.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 412,618 -I-Io1z Oct. 8, 1889 799,624 Beck et a1. Sept. 19, 1905 895,527 Williams Aug. 11, 1908 943,652 Coe et al Dec. 21, 1909 1,710,393 Williams Apr. 23, 1929 1,869,385 Maish Aug. 2, 1932 

